DaveM

I built one of those '53 Panels back in the '70s. I am still not sure how I got that thing together. The hardtop is just as nasty. I also built the "Moving Violation" Willys Pickup. Looking back, I must have had a bit more patience and perseverance than I give myself credit for. I remember needing stitches while doing the Gasser and putting a temporary end to my model building career, as I got back from the E.R. to find all of my models gone and I didn't get to hold an X-acto for many Months after that.

I grew up listening to AC/DC, but I really liked Midnight Oil and INXS too. Men at work were pretty cool too. There were a lot of great Australian bands out there. There were also the Skyhooks. They were an interesting band to say the least. I had a couple of their albums back in the '70s, but they never got much radio play in the U.S. I actually had a hard time finding a song from them that I could post here, as most of their stuff is pretty raunchy. Part comedy, part social commentary, part serious and a heck of a party band. Not my favorite band, but a good bit of fun. I posted "Ego Is Not A Dirty Word" because all of their other classics have a bad word, or a normally good word used in a bad, bad way... They were much better than this at times.

I liked these guys back in the day. They were a little wild for my tastes, but they rocked. The guitar player was bluesy and used a slide as well as anybody. The lead singer had pipes! We went on to cover this song and a couple of others by them. Great fun to play, if you have a singer who can hit the notes really hard.

I usually don't buy the Tom Daniel kits, but I would grab a "California Street 'Vette" if they reissued that one. I goobered one up in Middle School with Lime green and orange candystripes. I'd love to have another chance at doing that kit some justice. I remember it being a pretty nice kit, in the style of Monogram's 1/24 kits of the time. A few bits and pieces live on, waiting to be transplanted under a 1939 Chevy street rod I started building in 1984. I swear, I'm going to finish it one day!

Are the molds for the Nomad, the '66 Nova, the Cameo and the '70 Camaro still intact? I know the Willys was reissued as the Maalco car recently and the stock '66 Nova was done as Grumpy's Toy. Were the other tools ruined. Is the old tool '57 Chevy still alive? the Cameo, Camaro and Nomad are staples for us older builders, and the Nova is essential if you are wanting to make a pro street out of anything.

Okay... Just to stir things up. I remember this was the big song for about a week when I was in eighth grade. Not exactly my favorite band, but he made Geddy Lee sound like an opera singer! He was also a founder of this Vancouver based band He left Sweeney Todd to go solo and was replaced by Bryan Adams. (I just switched this video from the album version to the single, as the cover art features some risque silhouettes. I remember hearing this at Skateland and the Family Roller Rink up here. (Family Roller Rink was a budget operation, and wouldn't have picked up the album until it hit the cutout bin...) They also did this song on an album with Bryan Adams, but that cover art was nude. If I can find the Bryan Adams version without the cover art, I will try to tack it on. They sped up his voice to make it a bit higher so it would match Gilder's. In reality, my favorites have already been mentioned; Rush, Gordon Lightfoot, Guess Who, Neil Young. Buffalo Springfield, (Half Canadian) and Joni Mitchell.

I noticed that the trim on my '48 was in danger of being lost when I looked at it under the first coat of primer. I did a little scribing along the edges of the trim before I finished painting it, and it gave me enough of a demarcation line to run my X-acto along when I trimmed my foil. I do that when I see trim that is going to be tough to foil, especially around windows. It helps a lot.

I'm waiting to see who tries to combine this with a '41 Woodie from AMT. It would take a lot of body surgery and some scratchbuilt trim to make a '41 coupe, but it sure would be cool to see one done up right! I saw a '41 Convertible at a contest a while back. We didn't manage to find the builder, but we speculated he used the front end, frame, fenders, running boards and running gear from the AMT kit, adjusted the wheelbase and the like to fit, and grafted in the rest of the convertible body. It also looked like he had heavily reworked the 1941 interior to fit. It sure looked sharp! If Revell or AMT would make a 1941 coupe, they would have a winner on their hands. Both of the base kits are pretty nice.

We're keeping you all in our prayers too.

Glad to hear she is recovering. My Mother spent some time in rehab a couple of years ago after her earlier stroke. She came through that one pretty well. The people in the rehab were great. Even if she is in a nursing home setting for part of the rehab, that is OK. It just gives them more time per day to work with her. Exercise is very important, but so is rest. My Mother did about 4 weeks in the nursing home based rehab, then came home to about 3 more Months of therapy. We'll keep her in our prayers.

This kit should be a blast to bash up NASCAR cars with. I wonder how much of the running gear would mate up to '61 and '62 Chevies, and the '62 Pontiacs. I am really looking forward to seeing what drag versions of the Pontiacs they produce. There were a lot of Venturas and Catalinas running NHRA too. The Moebius Pontiac may be the Swiss army knife of model kit tools. Those cars did everything. They raced oval and drag. They were nice grocery getters, and they made sweet customs and street machines as the '60s went on. Hopefully we get a few more versions. Here are a couple more shots from my short search. There are some neat ideas for somebody with the capabilities to make decals. Here's the car from the first post with a different driver. NASCAR never changes in that respect do they? (Some NASCAR cars need to be fitted with a revolving door) There! That should make it hard to wait for "summerish" to get here! Happy Pontiac dreaming!

That looks great, but it's going to take some work to make it look like this! But making a nice clean one from the start of the season should be a piece of cake. I spent about ten minutes searching and come up with some other paint schemes. (Not my pics) The decal makers will have a blast with this kit! Here's Junior. The Silver Fox I'll post a few more in a couple of minutes.

If you are airbrushing in a damp place, like a basement, there are a couple of things you can do to help. If you are using a compressor, make sure the compressor is in a dryer location. We had a rental house where I had to paint in a dirt floored stone walled basement. I set the compressor upstairs in the Living room with a dehumidifier and the furnace running full blast. That way, I was at least starting with dry air. I used two moisture traps, one by the compressor with a filter, and an inline one right before the fitting where the short hose to the brush attached. I brought the model upstairs within a few minutes after it was painted, and let it sit near a heat register. (I always refreshed the furnace filter frequently) I usually ended up with pretty decent paint jobs and very little blushing.

Octane rating or octane number is a standard measure of the performance of an engine or aviation fuel. The higher the octane number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before detonating (igniting). In broad terms, fuels with a higher octane rating are used in high performance gasoline engines that require higher compression ratios. straight from Wikipedia, but there are many other sources. I think we're all on the same basic page here. Higher octane resists knocking because it doesn't detonate at such a low compression. Compression related detonation is the source of knocking, so the octane rating is a measure of the gasoline's ability to be compressed without detonating. They used to use card gap testing to test fuel mixtures at certain ratios, temperatures and pressures. This was more common as a way to test Nitromethane fuels. (Really, the card gap test is more of a stability test for explosives, but it is still measuring resistance to shock, or rapid compression)

40 here too. I was tempted to say that a dual exhaust helped the engine's performance by increasing the exhaust noise, but I know better.

Thanks for that information. Mine was a 144, so it probably was Canadian built. (And it was built like a tank!) By the time I got the car, it was 17 years old and had been refreshed with new paint and a bit of an overhaul. (Remember when people used to do that instead of throwing the car out and buying a new one?) I wish I could have kept the car around, but the brakes went out for the second time, and the parts were almost impossible to get. I remember coming home for a weekend to work on it, and my Father had sold it to a junkyard. The title was on the table for me to sign and that was it. He knew I was going to spend a couple of grand and end up with a $500 car at best. He meant well, but I miss that funky old car.

If you order the decals first, you can't find a kit at any price. If you order the kit first, the place making the decals goes belly up. If you order them at the same time, one, but NOT both will be out of stock and never come back.

A bit more to the original topic...(But still way OT) I had a 1970 Volvo, which had some interesting instrumentation quirks. It had the red stripe style speedometer that Volvos had back then, but it was a quirky mix of metric and English all through the car. (Grey market import to Canada, then to the U.S.??, as I think my Uncle bought it in Windsor and brought it back to Detroit.) The wild thing was that there was no gas gauge. It had a reserve lever, just like our '58 VW, and some of our older cars did. Even without a basic item like a gas gauge in 1970, it managed to have an optional gauge for the windshield washer fluid! I was driving it down to Marion one night, and I had the motor sputter in the middle of nowhere. No problem, as the reserve gave me about 25 miles. Reached down by the pedals and had a sinking feeling. My Father had gassed it up last, but forgot to reset the lever! This was well before cell phones were available up here, and I had to wait on a dirt road for another car to show up. I was able to tell him I was out of gas, but I had 5/8 of a tank of washer fluid left! Neither of us was too impressed with Swedish engineering that night. In all fairness, the car might have been partially converted from Euro to Canadian specs, or had changes made during it's lifetime, but I thought it was probably more of a reflection on Swedish driving conditions than anything. Looking at pictures I've seen of the countryside up there, windshield washer fluid might be more necessary than gasoline! So, maybe one of the gauges on that Vette is for washer fluid?

That looks awesome! I was not going to buy any more models, as I am kind of out of the hobby, but I just got drafted to build a pair of Comets for a neighbor. I'm going to have to build one for myself too. I had originally thought that I would go with a lighter color like Fawn, Yellow Mist or Tiffany blue to make it stand out from the Caspian Blue and Vintage Burgundy cars it will probably share a case with. Now, I am thinking I want to paint something with that Olive Mist/Ivy Green. I might still do a Comet in Tiffany Blue. It sure looks nice with the foil on it. I can't wait to see the chrome on it. I am guessing that the grill really jumps out with a good black wash. Those things always looked great from the front. Only a few cars had the guts to pull off the stacked headlights. I think they were mostly gone by 1969. Plymouth still had them in 1968. They sure looked nice on the Cyclones, though. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a non-Cyclone version of the Comet, now! Hopefully I didn't just jump into the project from heck! Thanks for the two sets of wheels. Things like that are always a nice bonus. Those mags look great. Even though I'm out of the Hobby, I will be picking up this and the 1970 Pickup. As I'm selling off most of my other kits I had an Uncle with a 1970 and 1972 Ford Pickup so I need to build those two. Thanks for posting! I'll keep watching for the finished shots!

At the risk of drifting OT, here is a site with a bunch of info on the 8 3/4 rear ends. http://members.tripod.com/~Mojo_Page/chry875.htm

Those 8 3/4 rear ends could be pretty tough. We ran one behind a 440 in Super Stock, and I have seen them survive things on short tracks that no rear end should survive. That said, I'm sure the Dana 60 was welcomed in '66 when it became available. We broke a 727 when we caught some traction a few feet off the line but the rear was fine. If the gears were aligned correctly, and the clearances were all okay, they would usually be fine. The '69 and up with the larger 1 7/8 pinions were tougher, but the 1 3/4 could be set up to take some decent power too. That said, I'm glad that we had a '69 car so we could run the 1 7/8 in Super Stock! We were sort of punishing things with a 440 in a Fury! We had to run the 8 3/4 because that was the only rear in the Fury with the 440 in '69. Later as rules opened up, we could have run a Dana 60 with a locked spool and the works, but when they first started, the rear end had to be available with the powertrain being used.

I now see the different rooflines, and the model does nail the Cyclone roofline perfectly. I took the laptop over to a neighbor's garage last night and held it up to a regular Comet, thinking they were the same. Sorry 'bout that. I even checked Wikipedia, and it listed a 2 door coupe as the only two door body style, so I made sure I wasn't comparing a coupe to a sedan, or something dumb like that. I never dreamed that FoMoCo had snuck another body style in! Even the owner had assured me that 2 door Comets were all the same body style! Ooops! Now, I have a dilemma. This guy saw the model, and he wants me to build a pair for him, to match his Comet, and his Wife's Comet. Dave, Please tell me that a regular Comet, will be a future version of the kit! Please! I am going to have to modify the roof to make the Comet version. Looking at it, the upper part of the roof looks the same to me. I think the main difference is the shape of the side window opening. If so, that would be possible to fix by filing and filling, making some window trim from Evergreen strip and replacing the kit glass with some clear sheet. I know the grill will need to be changed too, but I have heard of an aftermarket possibility, so I was not too worried about that. I will need to figure out a 200 c.i.d. six and a three on the tree shifter, plus do the bench seat in the base pattern, but I had already planned on those small bits. I am praying for photo etch, because that will cover the different trim levels. (and the grill) There goes my hiatus from modeling! although I told him I would need a couple of years for each build. His Wife was watching my Mother while I was in his garage, so he understands what I am going through. He is retired, so he has plenty of patience. He already has a model of his old Starliner that I built for him when he sold it. He wants the Comets, now that he knows there is a kit available. The real trick is going to be building a model of his Comet. The Wife's is done and running, but his is in many pieces, and is waiting for paint and chrome when the weather gets a bit nicer. They are stitching the interior parts right now. (She worked for a custom upholstery shop for 44 years and has the machines to do the job. She did mostly boats and furniture, but she can whip out some nice car seats too!) She says the seats will look and measure exactly the same as stock, but be a bit more easy on the derriere due to better grades of fill and cushion material. I wasn't planning on taking any projects as I sold off my stuff, but now, I guess I will complete two more builds. His is a 289 two barrel, and he has the numbers matching motor restored perfectly, but he will probably drop in his hopped up 4bbl motor with some chrome bits, a lumpy cam and headers just for a bit more fun. He also has some Cragars, and some Keystones that will fit the car, but he would like to go with torq thrusts when he runs it on the street. (Yes, he has the original wheels and new Cokers for it. He can stick them on at a moment's notice) The car was black on black, but he is thinking of going to a different color. His Wife's is Pecan Frost (Mercury's name for Prarie Bronze) Now I am really looking forward to this kit. He called me at about 6:30 in the Morning to tell me he wanted two models for himself, and I have been planning the builds ever since. If a non-Cyclone version is in the making, then I will wait for that. Otherwise, I'll order three Cyclone kits and start hacking. Thanks again for posting, Dave, and I'm sorry about the oops on the roofline. BTW, is that Olive Mist/Ivy Green? That looks nice. This kit is going to be KILLER!

Nice looking body! The only two things I see, and they are both pretty small, are the top of the rear wheel arch (Mentioned above) and the top back corner of the rear seat side window opening. It looks like a much larger radius than the actual car used. It kind of makes the roof look funny in that spot, even though the exterior roof dimensions themselves look spot on. On the prototype, the top of the window is already flat and parallel to the roof when it reaches the rear of the door opening. One the Moebius body, the window opening is still curving at that point. It makes the rear side window take on a different shape than the real one. Holding up the glass insert would confirm that pretty quickly. That would take a bit of work to fix, but it would be worth it to get the profile right. It looks almost as good as the Pontiacs right now! (And the Pontiac is probably the benchmark for the new era of kits) A couple of tweaks for production, and you would have a pretty strong contender for best kit of 2016, no matter what Revell cooked up. As is, it still looks like a pretty decent kit. There is a lot of nice work here, and I can already picture some nice Comets turning up n the contest tables this year. Considering that these things were basic, compact, economy cars that started with the 200 inch inline 6 and could go all the way up to a 427 powered drag strip terror, there is almost no wrong way to build one. This kit should have some serious legs when it finally gets here. (And hopefully AMT will wise up and reissue their '64 curbside kit, now that a suitable chassis and engine compartment are available... ) Kitbashers start rejoicing now! No need to goof around with Mustang and Fairlane chassis any more. The '64 and '65 Comets were pretty much the same car underneath. Looks great. I might break my hiatus from kit buying, just to try this one out! Thanks for showing this Dave. I didn't think that Pontiac could be topped, but you're taking a pretty good shot at it. Keep up the good work.

Those headers on the missile kit look really well done. That Hemi looks mean even from the bottom. I would leave the front wheels straight, since the rest of the steering parts don't seem to turn with them. I always glue my wheels solid and straight anyways. That's a nice looking kit. I know the rear measured out much closer to stock than it looked on the Satellite, but it just looks so spindly behind that Hemi! Still, it looks like the Missile should be a really nice kit. I probably won't buy one due to massive stash reduction efforts, but it should be a good seller, even without me!

Thanks for the words of support everybody. Stuff like this sure matters a lot more than a few rivets! You are all a great group and the support and messages are appreciated. This situation has been brewing for a couple of years, and I should have responded sooner and more gracefully, but I tend to wait until crunch time before doing anything about the problem. The important thing is taking care of my Mother, and keeping her as healthy as possible for the longest time possible. I have not let that slip, but my hobbies have had to go by the wayside for a few years. I won't sell off every last kit. I am starting by getting rid of all of the sealed kits that I don't really think I will ever use. I don't need five of any kit, even if they were molded in different colors. None of my satisfaction in this hobby comes from collecting. (I have stamps and fountain pens for that) I strictly see myself as a builder, so if I'm not going to build it, it goes. At the rate I can get things done around here, that will take a long time! I will probably let my girlfriend's Daughter and Son in law ebay those for me, as they like the wheeling and dealing involved. He has the keys to my storage units, as he has some stuff stored there, so he is already piling some boxes up to open up and go through. I can do a lot of the listing and packing, but I can't drive to the post office, or pick them up at the storage unit. I will probably sell off all but a few sealed kits, as any kits I was really interested in were opened up before leaving the parking lot at the hobby store. (Hey! These are toys, and I'm just a big, old grey haired kid, Right?) I still have enough opened, started and cannibalized kits to keep me going for a lifetime. I will even sell a lot of them, but I will keep a couple dozen of the personal favorites and my pet projects. That will keep me going for a long time, and I can always use the money to buy a kit off of the 'bay if I really have to have one. I'll save enough in storage to afford almost any individual kit I want. (I think somebody mentioned selling off most of his kits and using the 'net as a stash, and it makes some sense in my situation.) I may not get rid of everything, but I sure will simplify my life a lot. The less complication in my life, the more of a chance I have of finishing a task. If that task is a simple model, that's even better. Right now, I spend so much time moving my kits, trying to find the one I want and paying storage bills, that I don't have any hobby time left over. I would like to get my extraneous things straightened up well before I have to handle worsening health problems (For either of us) or her estate. We already have made most of the estate plans, and updated the wills and trusts about a year ago, so we are pretty good there. We used a good lawyer and kept things fairly simple. I don't anticipate any legal problems. The big headache with the estate is the amount of physical stuff to deal with. We still have the packed up households belonging to Grandparents and Uncles that haven't been disposed of, and all of my Father's stuff is still in the garages. There is an unbelievable amount of stuff to deal with. I am already starting to empty out my Mother's basement (Hurried along slightly by a small flood at one end last year) I came from a long line of pack rats! The problem is, I am not just an only child, but I was the only grandchild on both sides of my family! (I was spoiled as a kid, but I'm paying for it now!) I am the last of this line of pack rats. All of the junk stopped here! It will take a whole summer of really hard work to get all of the properties empty and sold off. There is some decent value in the stuff, but probably not enough to make up what we have payed for storage over the last decade or two. I will be back on the board on a more regular basis. I just needed a few days to deal with a couple of issues and decompress a little bit. I probably won't do any building for a few months, but I am going through stacks of kits and checking a bunch of opened kits to see if they are complete, or what they are missing, and I have been tempted to hold body parts and wheels up next to each other and imagine a bit. I guess the fire still burns in me a bit. (Although at my age, that probably means I need a Prevacid doesn't it?) Take care all, and thanks again for the support. Again, thanks for all of your support and I'll be in touch.